Obama vs. History
We all know the narrative of this presidential election. Poll numbers show that voter support for Democrats far outweighs that of Republicans. However, in some polls McCain is actually marginally...
View ArticleUncle Sam Doing the Right Thing
If you have watched television, read a newspaper or applied for a finance job, you know that the world is about to end. The cover of the Wall Street Journal might as well have read “Apocalypse Near.”...
View ArticleWhat Are We Voting For?
The polls show that Barack Obama will likely be the 44th President of the United States. John McCain has fallen prey to a struggling campaign with a continuously changing message, a running mate who...
View ArticleThe Tax Cut Fallacy
One of the great debates in politics concerns the merits of tax cuts versus tax increases. Traditionally, the Republican Party has preached supply-side economics and tax cuts as means to stimulate...
View ArticleDon't Be Afraid of Deficits
As the candidates continue to talk about the economy, tax policy and ideas for buttressing the financial markets, the federal budget deficit, currently at approximately $455 billion, according to the...
View ArticleWe’re Not Ready To Turn Left
Barack Obama’s win was undoubtedly a proud moment for all Americans, regardless of where you may fall on the political spectrum. The Democratic wins for control of both the executive and legislative...
View ArticleThree Cheers for Chapter 11
This week the CEO’s of the Big Three (GM, Ford and Chrysler) begged Congress for money, as they flew into Washington on their private jets. Congress has correctly denied funding and now the Big Three...
View ArticleA Test for Obama and the World
“Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.” Vice President-Elect Joe Biden said these words only several weeks ago and it seems, at least in...
View ArticlePressure Lending
Many are up in arms about President Bush’s decision to allocate up to $17.4 billion of TARP money to the U.S. automakers, and rightly so. However, this only represents about 5 percent of the first $350...
View ArticleDon’t Forget About Entitlements
Short-term profits, irrespective of potential long-term catastrophes, have pushed the U.S. economy into recession and the financial markets in to a standstill. In response, the Obama administration...
View ArticleA Regulatory Lesson for the Future
This week the world’s most powerful leaders meet in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum. As an indication of the changing times, this year’s summit will be attended by 40 heads of state, as...
View ArticleIncremental Change We Can Believe In
During the presidential election the domestic policy of most concern to voters, other than the economy, was healthcare. President Obama ran on a campaign of implementing sweeping healthcare reform...
View ArticleBigger Isn't Always Better
Today the Senate passed its version of the stimulus bill. The House version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has a price tag of about $820 billion while the Senate version stands at a...
View ArticleAn A For Effort on the Housing Plan
The Obama Administration’s $275 billion Homeowner and Affordability Stability Plan is the first real, comprehensive effort by the federal government to address problems in the real estate market. The...
View ArticleA Changing Reality
The Obama administration, by its own admission, is redefining the role of the federal government. This is evidenced by the President’s budget for the fiscal year 2010, which is not only a document of...
View ArticleObama's Rookie Mistake on Healthcare
President Barack Obama made health reform a pillar of his campaign and he has issued some broad guidelines as to how he might proceed. In a surprising moment of specificity, however, President Obama...
View ArticleCongress, The One Branch Wrecking Machine
The election of President Obama and the new Democratic majority in Congress was a sign that the people of the United States wanted sweeping change and a new course for the nation. The federal...
View ArticleThree Steps to Maintain Popular Support for The Bailout
President Obama said something very important and insightful during his address to Congress on February 24th. “We cannot afford to govern out of anger, or yield to the politics of the moment,” was the...
View ArticleObama’s Torture Two-Step
President Obama’s decision to release internal CIA documents detailing interrogation techniques represents a fundamental contradiction in his policy towards torture and transparency. President Obama...
View ArticleTaxes and Pizza
“What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin,” wrote Mark Twain. Those making over $250,000 may soon prefer the taxidermist. President Obama...
View ArticleBack to School with President Obama
In a sign of the times, there is uproar over President Obama’s decision to speak to schoolchildren and convey a message of studying hard and staying in school. Parents have appeared on the cable news...
View ArticleA Simple Solution
The healthcare reform debate has entered a new stage now, after the Finance committee’s supposed bipartisan plan has been released. The plan seeks to raise revenue by taxing so-called “Cadillac” plans,...
View ArticleIs Obama Fickle On The Afghanistan Pickle?
By nearly any measure the war in Afghanistan is not going as well as many had hoped. To be sure, it is no easy task to eradicate the Taliban in a failing nation without a credible central government....
View ArticleDon't Be Fooled By Iran
This week brought news that Iran will allow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors in to the country to inspect newly revealed nuclear enrichment sites. There are now two questions...
View ArticleRules Are Not Meant To Be Broken
We all want to have faith in our government, in elected officials’ honesty and good intent. We want to believe in our President and in our system of government. President Obama has insisted that any...
View ArticleA Middle Way Forward
In an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll conducted at the end of September, only 11 percent of those polled believed that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan should be the number one priority of the...
View ArticleThe Paradox of Bringing Detainees to “Justice”
On Friday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that several Guantanamo detainees, including the alleged September 11th mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), and the alleged architect of the USS...
View ArticleOur Fate is Not Sealed
As another semester of Left, Right or Wrong? commences, it seems that pessimism rules the day. At Cornell there are seniors uncertain about the future, and nationally there are contentious issues,...
View ArticleTerrorism Is Not The Whole Story
Consider what could have happened. Had the Detroit bomber succeeded, several hundred people would have died. If Mr.read more
View ArticleThe Specter of An Unconstrained Administration
The refrain often thrown around now is that the Obama administration is unfriendly towards the business community. That this complaint may be tiring to some does not make it untrue. In September the...
View Article
